Family, Friends and Fun!!!

Written from Dundas, Canada on Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Hello everyone I am back in Canada and so far so good.....

After our fabulous welcome party at Toronto Pearson airport Chris and I temporarily went our separate ways. Chris followed his brother Jeremy back to St Catherines, and I followed my sister Sara her partner Simon and my best friend Hope back to Dundas..... We both thought it would be good to have a break from each other and see all the people we needed too, but ended up missing each other after only a few days??

Dundas is a small town on the north end of Hamilton, it's a pretty quiet place so I was able to slowly come to grips with the country I hadn't seen for 4 years. After travelling in South America for so long I was so happy to live on the edge and drink from the tap and actually flush toilet paper :). These sound silly, but honestly it is a major thing that most people take for granted. WOOHOOO!!!

My sister hosted a Welcome Home open house for some close family and friends to visit. We didn't go too crazy inviting everyone and I am glad since I was such a spaz all day :). Honestly seeing a bunch of people I missed so much was pretty overwhelming. My folks were there and because I was spazzing so much I barely spoke to anyone... just did the social butterfly thing and wandered around. Chris and his family were there too and although I know Chris was feeling the overload seemed to hide it better then me :).

I didn't take many photos at the party (again I was super spazzing), but I did take the camera out for a bit. Some of the photos aren't so great, but you should look at the one with me and my folks :). It is a really nice photo and would have been even better if my Sara was in it too.

The open house was from noon till 9PM and it started off with all the young families with kiddo I had only seen when they were tiny or hadn't even been thought of yet. My nephews Damien and Daniel are all grown up and seem like they are 9'12" in my eyes holding friends babies and my picturing them starting families soon. Hold off guys I am too young to be a great aunt :)!!! Tee hee. The open house was great, and Sara and Simon put out a big spread for everyone and people who came to the party brought snacks and no one could possibly go hungry.

The day after the party Chris and I ventured into the scary room at my sisters place..... This is the room that both of our apartments contents were stuffed in here and lay sitting for 4 years. We rearranged the room and I dragged out all my boxes of clothes to purge through. I am such a pack rat by nature, but after this trip and living with only what is on my back I can't imagine how I had so much stuff and why I didn't purge more before leaving. Chris kept looking at everything and wondering how he was going to fit this all on his back :). Tee hee.

I drove Chris back to St Catherines for a quick visit and then back to Dundas where I spent most of my time catching up with friends. I got suckered into helping a few people with there gardens and was treated to two fabulous firework parties for Victoria Day weekend........ Yes, for non Canadians we do celebrate a dead Queens Birthday? No clue why and everyone is quite content with a day off and doesn't fuss much about the reasons why we can legally buy and use fireworks (only legal on Canada Day and Victoria Day unless you apply for a permit). I think in Australia and New Zealand, and possibly the UK they celebrate Elizabeth's Birthday? Anyways I went up to the town of Erin to visit the Ferris family and we had a fabulous time on the Sunday night (they are the family I made pose for photos with the Babybel wax over their smiles). Then on Monday Hope had another firework party where I was reunited with my friend Rick and a bunch of other people I hadn't seen for ages.

After all the celebrating and visiting it was time to collect Chris, again fight the scary room, repack our backpacks and take the Go Train to Chris' aunt Heather's place in Toronto. This is the same Heather that came to meet us in Buenos Aires and traveled with us to 3 countries :).

Now that we are back in the city in a semi stable place we are now hard at work. For Chris studying and learning what has gone on in the programming world the last 4 years..... and for me writing up a new resume, and learning how to make a cover letter. I am now sending resumes, going to interviews and hopefully will be working very very soon.

Next plan.... start work and find an apartment or shared house close to the city.

I haven't lived in Toronto for about 15 years!!! I have a few friends in the city and trying to meet up with them and get to know Chris' friends better, and after we are settled I will try to meet new people along the way.

So how are we adjusting???? Well good some days seeing people and places we missed, and bad other days missing travelling around and experiencing new places........... ho hum.

This is the last post for Finding Sheryl.... Or is it???? IF I do ever save enough money again it would be cool to have a Part 2 addition. There are so many countries I missed and would love to see. Time will tell if I just do smaller trips of individual areas or if I win the lottery it would be fun to fill in the blanks of my map starting with Iceland, and working my way around. On the other hand I do feel guilty that I haven't seem much of my own country... I have barely touched the East coast, never traveled North... so maybe I could work on that first :).

Thanks everyone for the support through the years. I have met so many great people on the trip that will be welcome to visit anytime in the future (once we have a place), it doesn't matter if it's soon or years from now, keep our info handy if you want to see Toronto and Chris and I :). And for everyone here it's good to see you all and so far everyone looks fantastic :).

Take care, keep safe, travel lots and share your photos and stories with me and enjoy all the good things in life.